The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Alex White, T.D., today published online national and county maps that identify the homes, businesses and schools where commercial providers will deliver high-speed broadband access by the end of 2016. Minister White said that the State would invest in all the remaining areas to ensure that every home, school and business in Ireland has access to high-speed broadband, regardless of where it is located.

Here’s a short video of my speech yesterday in the Dáil on the water package reforms announced on Wednesday by Minister Kelly. These reforms bring simplicity, certainty and affordability to every family and individual in Ireland and represent a fair and reasonable approach to addressing our poor and deteriorating water and sewerage infrastructure.

It is a pleasure to be here tonight at the eighth annual Dún Laoghaire EnviroCom Awards. I will try to keep my speech brief as I know you’re all looking forward to your meal.

The purpose of tonight’s EnviroCom Awards is to recognise businesses and agencies in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown for their environmental achievements. The Awards celebrate excellence, innovation, dedication and success in environmental management in our community. The awards shine a light on the range of actions that businesses and agencies can take to minimise their impact on the environment and in many cases save money and lower costs.

I was very saddened to hear of the death of Brian Farrell, who was among the very best of Irish broadcasters. He had an exceptional insight into Irish politics and current affairs, and he will be remembered as a rigorous and fair analyst and interviewer. He will be very much missed and my thoughts today are with his family.

Local jobseekers who avail of temporary seasonal work for up to 8 weeks over Christmas should know that their social welfare payment will be immediately reinstated when the period of employment ends.

It is around this time of year that temporary seasonal work opens up as the Christmas retail rush gets underway. I want to assure people on either Jobseeker’s Benefit or Jobseeker’s Allowance that, should they take up employment over the holidays, this payment will immediately resume once that employment ends.

I warmly welcome the latest CSO figures which show that in the past year there has been a 5.2% drop in the numbers signing on the live register at Nutgrove Social Welfare Office and an 11.6% drop at the Intreo Centre in Dún Laoghaire. These are really positive developments and signal strong progress in renewing our local economy.

Today I obtained Government approval for the appointment of seven new members of the RTÉ Board.

On my nomination, Moya Doherty was appointed as Chair to serve alongside four newly appointed Ministerial nominees; Frank Hannigan, Deborah Kelleher, PJ Mathews, Anne O’Leary. Mr Fergus Armstrong was also reappointed to the Board. In addition, the recently elected RTÉ staff representative, Mr Aengus Mac Grianna, was appointed by Government. RTÉ director-general Noel Curran is also a member of the Board. Four existing board members, nominated by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications, remain in place until their terms expire in February 2015.